The Dragonlord's Daughter
by A Diamond in the Rough
Summary: It's twelve years after the Figure in the Shadows (read that one first) and Ania, oldest daughter of Merlin and Freya, is now seventeen and preparing for her first ball. But then again, no one ever knows who else will turn up at a ball...or, indeed, what happens from there...rated K because this would be a kid's story if it were published :D ABANDONED! UP FOR ADOPTION, ON HIATUS!
1. Chapter 1

All right...**so hi again you readers! This story is the third in its series, the first being "The Gifts of a Dragon," and the second being "A Figure in the Shadows."**

**So there are a lot of characters not in the series (to understand who they are you should at least read the Figure in the Shadows) namely the children of Merlin and Freya, Gwen and Arthur, and Morgana and Lancelot. The main character is Ania, the oldest daughter of Merlin and Freya, who is now seventeen. **

**So...Enjoy "The Dragonlord's Daughter!"**

* * *

It was a late summer day in Camelot.

All was quite the same as it was twelve years ago. Without the kingdom, there is a forest; within the kingdom there is a town. Within the town, there is a palace; and within the palace reside certain people with whom we are very familiar...

* * *

"Ania!"

Silence.

"_Ania!_"

No sound.

Freya Linden sighed. Ever since her daughter, Ania, had turned fifteen, she often wandered far from her mother's hearing, even though she had been told often not to do so. But she allowed her lips to turn up in a smile; for with it all, she was so proud of Ania. Her brave and daring Ania, who would spar with the boys in the courtyard and run high risks to rescue whatever and whomever might need it; her naive and foolish Ania who the younger children, especially Sunne and Gorlois, often played tricks on; her tender and loving Ania who had stayed up endless nights to nurse her younger sister Mariel back to health after even Freya's brews did not do much good...

Downstairs, another mother was having the same thoughts.

"YGRAINE!"

No answer.

"YGRAINE ELWYNE PENDRAGON! YOU ANSWER ME THIS MOMENT!"

No answer.

Guinevere Pendragon, Queen of Camelot, sighed in despair. She had three children; Ygraine, who was sixteen; Tom, who was thirteen, and Laurel, who was eight years old. Ygraine was one of the most beautiful girls who had ever graced the streets of Camelot; tall and slender with long golden curls, wide, clear blue eyes, a good figure (which her mother was proud of, being slightly plump now) and a beautiful voice which did not manifest itself until Ygraine sang.

But, like Ania, Ygraine had been told to stay within calling range of the palace. Also like Ania, she very often disobeyed and ventured further.

* * *

In a tower on the west side of the castle, Merlin Ambrosius, the Court Sorcerer, was hard at work. He was developing a new spell which helped deter mice from eating grain stored in barns and cellars. He had made several over the years and had often been assisted by his daughter Ania. However, they wore out over time and often had to be replaced with stronger ones.

He heard a voice at the door.

"Father! Father!" He laid down his tools and went to the outer room, where at the door he saw Ania, flushed and panting, her glossy black hair tumbled loose from the rough bun it was always pulled into. As she saw him a smile split her face. "There is a ball tonight...in the village. May I go, Father?"

Merlin laughed. "That's a question to ask Mother, chickabid," he said. "But I don't see any reason why you should not go. Who told you about it?"

"Why, Sunne did," said Ania.

"She's been hard at work spying on the preparations, because Morgana has forbidden the ball to both her and Gorlois," said Merlin. "Well, you may go if Ygraine goes too. Unless you want me to come with you?"

"It's a masked ball, Father!" said Ania with a grin. "I want to see if anybody will know me in a mask."

"I see," said Merlin, smiling. "All right. Your mother's in the throne room-go find her there." Ania ran off and Merlin looked after her wondering how the last seventeen years had passed so quickly. It had seemed such a short time since the chubby, roly-poly baby Ania had been learning to walk...how skinny and strong four-year-old Ania raced Arthur on her horse around the village...how ten-year-old Ania had shrieked when Sunne had left (yet another) mouse beneath her chair...

Yes, years passed too quickly when you were a parent.

"Daddy?" came a small voice from inside. He went inside and found nine-year-old Mariel and six-year-old Gaheris sitting inside. Gaheris was puzzling over his lessons and Mariel was sweetly unconscious of all that went on around her, so absorbed was she in the book she had.

"Yes, little herring?" Most of the family called Gaheris "Herring" because of the way Morgana's son Kveth had mispronounced his name when he was a baby. Some might have found it an offensive name, but small Gaheris was perfectly happy to go by Herring.

"Daddy, I don't know what this word means," said Gaheris. "Cir-cum-stan-ces."

"Well, it means the situation you're in," explained Merlin. "Do either of you want to go and see the preparations for the masked ball to-night? You know you can't go, but you can go with Sunne and Gorlois and watch the things being put up."

"Yes! yes!" chorused the two, and then ran past him to the lesson-room where Sunne and Gorlois had their lessons.

And Ania and Ygraine were filled with the excitement which comes to girls everywhere on the night of their first ball.


	2. The Ball

Freya and Ania were having an enjoyable time selecting Ania's dress for the ball. Though she was a lady of the court, Freya kept her wardrobe and those of her children fairly simple; the children had ordinary clothes and one or two beautiful garments. Ania, being seventeen and old enough to marry now, possessed four beautiful dresses; one violet silk, a green muslin, a silver silk, and a blue satin which had been Morgana's gift for her seventeenth birthday.

"I think that the silver silk would look best on you, dear," said Freya, holding the garment up straight. "What do you think, Ania?"

"I want to wear the violet one," said Ania, laughing as she held it against herself. "It brings out my eyes."

"But Anne lost the bracelet of your amethyst jewelry," reminded Freya.

"I will just wear a thin gold bangle," said Freya. "After all, the embroidery is golden, so I will wear the gold set."

"All right," said Freya. "Go and dress and we'll see what we can do about that mop of yours,"

"I'll just put it up in a bun as usual," said Ania. "I don't want too many fussy clothes to-night, Mother."

"Which is a good thing," said Freya. "Go dress."

So Ania went to dress, and when she stepped out of her room, her face asking wordlessly if she warranted her mother's approval, Freya was struck speechless.

Ania's tall and slender figure gleamed softly in the lantern-light; the dress flowed about her feet like water. Freya rushed forward and kissed Ania until she looked like a rose; for Freya had suddenly remembered _her _first ball nearly twenty years ago, the night the curse that had changed her life had been laid on her. She had worn a dress like this, had stood in the front room of her house for her mother's approval...she hoped that Ania would be safe going to this ball.

"Oh, be careful tonight, Ania," said Freya, stepping back. "Stay near Ygraine all the time, don't dance too much and try to stay in a mob with the other girls and Ygraine when you are not dancing. And absolutely no magic...unless it is in self-defense."

"Self-defense!" cried Ania. "What's happened?"

"Nothing has happened, Ania, but I'm afraid that someone might try to hurt one of you girls to-night. I will send two guards to watch over you all, all right?"

"Yes, but can they follow at a small distance so no one knows, on the way to the dance, that they're following us?"

"I'll send them down there before you and say that they have to go to make sure that you all don't get too boisterous," said Freya. "And keep within their sight, at all times."

"I promise, mother." said Ania, throwing her arms around Freya. "Why don't you come?"

"Kveth is ill tonight," sighed Freya. "He's got a fairly high fever and Morgana and I are going to sit up with him since Lancelot's away on that mission with the other round-table knights."

* * *

That night before the ball, Ania and Ygraine were rushing down to the village in excitement. When they reached the ball, they found it in full swing, with the two guards Freya had sent sitting at opposite ends of the ring. When they say Ania and Ygraine, they nodded and then looked away again.

The two girls were soon whisked into the dancing. Ygraine had more partners than she could count and Freya danced near one of the guards with one of the village boys.

"So...," she asked, after some minutes of dancing. "What is your name?"

"Well, isn't this a masked ball?" said her partner.

"Oh, right," said Ania. "Well, I cannot tell you my name either then."

Her partner's bright green eyes gleamed cheerily at her through the holes in his mask. At this first sight of his eyes, which she had assumed to be a dark blue, before, she dropped his hand and backed away.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You aren't from Camelot," she said decisively, before she could be contradicted. "No one has green eyes west of Saxony. Are you a Saxon spy?" she asked. "Tell me honestly. You aren't from here, are you?"

The boy shook his head. "No. I come from a kingdom far to the east of Saxony, on the other side of Britain," he said. "My name is Perian."

"Why are you here?" asked Ania, as she and Perian began to dance again.

"That, fair maiden, I must keep secret. It is a matter only for the ears of the king and the court sorcerer."

Ania allowed herself a small smile. If the matter included the court sorcerer, she, the Lady Anharra Linden-Ambrosius, would hear of it no later than her father did.

The ball went on for several more hours. Ania danced with several other boys while Perian looked on, unwilling to mingle into the crowd once more; perhaps he was afraid that someone else would recognize he was not from Camelot. After her eleventh dance, Ania took pity on him and went to sit beside him.

"You know, Perian, if you just pulled your mask a little-there! Your eyes would be shadowed even under lantern light, or if the fire flared up. No one would recognize you now."

"In that case, gallant lady," he said with a smile. "May I have this dance?"

"Yes, you may," said Ania.

* * *

After the ball, the many young women and men there straggled home. Perian stayed behind in the shadows, from where a figure suddenly spoke. This was his servant Erichius, who was extremely adept in blending into the background when his master did not wish for him to be seen.

"Have you seen where your fair lady of tonight is going, Lord Perian?" asked Erichius.

"No-where?" asked Perian, his head turning this way and that.

"Up towards the palace with the young woman in the blue gown, accompanied by two palace guards."

"You mean to say-"

"Yes, she must be a Princess," said Erichius quietly. "Any other girl, Perian! and we would have passed into the chambers of the king undetected."

"I know, Erichius," said Perian. "I want to keep this mission as secret as possible-and no one should know I am here. But then again, if that girl is a Princess she will be at the court tomorrow when her father greets me."

"Do you have the vial for king Arthur?" asked Perian.

Erichius smiled and drew out a clear crystal phial, in which a deep blue liquid sparkled in the firelight."

"Good," said Perian. "We are ready."

* * *

**So...what do you think? Is Perian evil? Good? What about Ania? Please read and review! I will be happy and update faster :P**


	3. Perian?

"So, how was the ball, my precious one?" asked Merlin that night, over supper.

"It was quite wonderful." said Ania, biting into a potato.

"Who did you dance with?"

"Someone named Perian who has come to see Uncle Arthur from the other side of Britain." said Freya.

"Arthur never said anything about that," said Merlin, frowning,

"I knew about it," chirped Gaheris, who was trying to cut a piece of chicken, and miserably failing at it.

All eyes turned to him. Delightfully unconcerned with the attention, he finally succeeded in getting a piece of meat, which he then put in his mouth.

"How did you know, Herring?" asked Balinor, hushing Anne before she could speak.

"Because I heard someone talking 'bout it when Daddy took me to the village to buy danber dust yesterday."

"Danber dust?" asked Mariel, confused.

"He means amber dust," said Freya quickly. "Go on, Herring."

"Well, when we left the shopkeeper said, 'When does Perian get here? Will he be bringing the vial with him?' And then his helper-man laughed very quietly, and said 'The boy better know what he's doing for his own sake.'"

"And?" said Ania.

"That's all," said Gaheris.

"Perhaps Arthur does not know he is coming," said Merlin.

"You'd better warn him, Merlin," said Freya.

"I will," said Merlin, and departed at once.

"Oh!" said Gaheris. "There was one more thing."

"What?"

"Perian's a sorcerer."


	4. Fencing

HI GUYS...SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO UPDATE! ALMOST A MONTH...OR MORE :D I PROMISE TO UPDATE FASTER NOW, I USED TO BE PRETTY GOOD ABOUT IT.

* * *

Ania was running at full tilt down the halls. She had just been challenged to a fencing match (Gaheris had brought word.) and had dressed in her black leather fighting gear and was barreling past maids and footmen with a sword in her hand; if all of them had not been used to it, the maids would have picked up their skirts and run for their lives.

As she rounded a corner, she crashed into something soft but unyielding; she was knocked back and lay slightly stunned on the floor, stars winking before her eyes. It came to her that her head was hurting a great deal, and she uttered a very unladylike groan.

"My lady! my lady, are you hurt?" came a voice. Ania was expecting to see one of the menservants, but when she opened her eyes she saw, to her surprise, Perian.

"You," she said, in a tone of mingled surprise, pleasure, and irritation.

"It seems I made the acquaintance of a Princess the other night and did not even pay a single courtesy," he said, holding out his hand. Ania took it and pulled herself up. "I am sorry, Princess Anharra."

"Don't call me that," said Ania sharply. "I'm just Ania, all right? No one calls me _princess_-I am _not _a princess, but the daughter of the Court Sorcerer and the Court Physician, Lord Merlin and Lady Freya."

"Then your title is the Lady Anharra, I presume?"

Ania nodded, trying to look like a princess and not like tomboy out to mercilessly defeat the knights. She set off for the fields again and found to her astonishment that Perian was walking with her.

"And you are off to do what, my lady?"

Ania had barely opened her mouth to say_ don't you dare call me 'my Lady,' Perian _when she closed it again. "My Lady," from the lips of Perian seemed oddly natural, as if it were only right that he pay homage to her like knights and Princes did to Ygraine, Gwen, Freya, and Morgana. Tussling with this strange thought, she walked in silence until Perian repeated his question.

"Oh-er-to go fencing," she said, hoping she did not sound too brash.

"Indeed? Don't you think it is too rough for you, with half-a-dozen men?"

"They are _boys, _not men, and Princess Ygraine will be there too," she said haughtily, noticing to her absolute bewilderment that in that very moment she had begun to walk like a "lady" as her mother was always telling her to, in spite of her jerkin and breeches.

"But even so, My Lady-"

"Perian, I challenge you to a duel at four precisely," she said, swinging round to face him, her eyes glinting dangerously. "Bring your sword. I advise you to bring a shield too, but of course you don't have to. Don't be late, and you might want to turn up half-an-hour early."

"Er...why?" asked Perian.

"To get an idea of who you're facing," said Ania.

"But it's half-past three now, Ania."

"Exactly."

* * *

Ania strode confidently onto the field. She had lost all traces of her ladylike walk, and the sword in her hand winked cruelly as she faced her first opponent, the youngest knight, Sir Oswald. He faced her with some trepidation and soon the two were at it, swords flying so quickly that Ania could only be distinguished by her ropelike braid of hair, which flew out behind her when she did a particularly quick dodge.

"Good, isn't she?" said a stable-lad, leaning on the fence behind Perian. "The King trained her himself. There is no soldier in all this land that fights better than her and his daughter, not even him. They've both bested the king in single combat."

"The _King!_" gasped Perian. "When?"

The stable-boy thought for a moment. "Lady Ania was fifteen, and Princess Ygraine fourteen. It was two years ago, and there wasn't a prouder man than the King in all of Camelot that day, even though they bruised him pretty badly."

Perian watched in awe as seven more knights faced Ania and all were beaten. The beauty in Ania's face was something to behold; the slender figure dancing about with the strength of a whirlwind, the hardness and joy present in equal measure in her violet eyes. When it was his turn, he fought valiantly, even forgetting to dull his blows as he had planned to. But even so, within five minutes he was lying flat on the ground, her sword against his neck.

"That was brilliant," he breathed, rising to his feet.

"I know," she said, laughing.

"Has anyone ever told you," he said impulsively, "how beautiful you are?"

"Yes, many times," she said with a grin, "but never when my hair is pulled back and I'm dressed in leather and there is sweat running down my temples. You would be the first, I suppose."

"Then, Lady Ania of Camelot, I tell you that you are beautiful. I have roamed this land and seen princesses who could not equal you in any way, neither in courage, nor in beauty. You are more lovely as you dance upon the battlefield," here he smiled, "than the night when we were dancing, and you were resplendent in silk."

"Too many compliments, my lord," said Ania, pulling off her helm and throwing it onto the ground. "I doubt you mean a single word of them."

"I mean every word I have said." His intent gaze seemed to freeze her to the ground; at once she dropped her sword, turned, and fled, running like the wind.


	5. Gareth

Ania's face was streaming tears as she ran through the corridors. At once she bumped into her father, and once she had looked up to see who it was, she collapsed against him, sobbing like a child.

"Oh, Father," she wept. "Why me? why me?"

"Ania, sweetheart," he said softly, "what is bothering you so? Tell Daddy."

But Ania could do nothing but cry.

_I mean every word, every word, every word, every word of them, Ania..._

_I doubt it, Gareth, for you never mean a word you say..._

_If I said I loved you, would you believe that?_

_Perhaps if I thought it was true._

_Will you marry me, Ania? Ever since the day I first saw you...the image in my mind was you standing over the king, with triumph in your eyes and joy in your heart. It was that image of you which carried me through the war...and it will sustain me in the next..._

_If I said I loved you, would you believe me?_

_I wouldn't dare not to...is your answer Yes?_

_It is...I will marry you, Gareth...with all my heart._

She screamed out in despair, her fists clenched tightly. "Gareth! oh, Gareth."

Merlin's eyes darkened with sadness at the memory of the boy who Ania had fallen in love with, long ago. He had been a knight-in-training, she merely a wayward tomboy with a skill at fencing. It had not taken much to bring the two together, and when Ania was sixteen, their betrothal ceremonies had been conducted; the two were to marry when Ania turned eighteen. Then Cenred's kingdom had attacked...it had been a siege of about two weeks. But Gareth had been one of the last to fall, and Ania, watching from her window, had jumped out and run to him when she saw him wounded. He had died with her hand over the wound in his chest, and his eyes locked with hers.

After his death, Ania had seemed to put him from her mind; but Merlin and Freya knew that she kept a happy face for those who loved her. Often at night, Freya would hear her crying, but it had been a year and four months ago now that it had happened. Why had she remembered now?

"What happened?" asked Merlin.

"It was...Perian," sobbed Ania, burying her face in his chest. "He said...oh, Father..."

* * *

Perian was walking alone in the gardens. It was evening; there was no one about. What _had _made Ania cry? His mind went over that question again and again, but he could not think of an answer...unless his words had been said before by someone else...

Looking up, he saw that Ania's window was lighted. He took up a handful of stones and threw it at the glass.

It swung open and Perian said the first words that came to his lips.

"I'm sorry."


	6. HIATUS

Temporary Hiatus. So sorry! just not really in the mood for merlin right now, Im on a lotr funk 'sigh'

If anyone wants to take this poor story under their wing, PM me and I will give it to you gladly.


End file.
